My hybrid water bed finally gave up the ghost after 15 years of hard use, (never mind asking �how hard?� ). I hated to toss the nice high density foam away, so I saved it and carved it up to make my �Red Green� roof rack. As you can see in the pic, the landau top on my old Cougar precludes the use of ordinary roof rack solutions.

In honour of my workshop hero, I used red duct tape to hold the contraption together. It was supposed to be �only temporary, unless it works�, and by golly it works very well indeed. A couple of pvc pipes tie the foam pieces together, and some webbing I had lying around, (notice one of them is red, ..no green available), some rope, and some brand new, (sorry Red, I couldn�t skimp here), pipe insulation finished off the unit purty good. I didn�t have any proper hooks for the front tie downs, so an old bungie cord donated those. The boat doesn�t move, and no scratches on my fenders. Both trips were made at night in winter, so the looks aren't important. It works great!

Once the boat is off the car, you just toss the contraption into the car, lock her up and go paddling. Since my first couple of trips, I�ve decided to replace the webbing with ratchet straps, just to make loading up a little quicker, and I might make up flannel lined stem and a stern bags to avoid wrapping the webbing around the boat and marring the finish.

Well fellers, keep yer stick on the ice, and if the wife don�t find ya handsome, she should at lest find ya handy.

James Neely